There's Nothing To Do In This Town

There's Nothing To Do In This Town
https://donotrunwithpixels.itch.io/theres-nothing-to-do-in-this-town

There's Nothing To Do In This Town is a nonviolent Game Boy adventure game that takes about ten minutes to play. The story set on a section of high street in a town in Wales and seems to be vaguely contemporary, although it gives me a strong early 2000s vibes. You play as a young man who has no money and nothing to do. Also there are some zombies having an office party.

The game is essentially a trading sequence. You talk to people on the street, and you can go in several of the buildings and talk to people there. Your alcoholic father lives in an apartment under the zombie office, and he’s annoyed by the loud music. You therefore need to convince the town’s secret zombie slayer to take care of them.

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The graphics are quite good for this being a Game Boy game, and the trading sequence fits together nicely. The character interactions have big Scott Pilgrim energy, meaning that your character is kind of a loser but mostly means well, thereby encouraging all sorts of weird people to open to him. The nods to late 1990s grunge culture give the story a stronger sense of nostalgia than the retro graphics, and I really enjoyed the experience of playing a game that’s essentially indie alt comix come to life.

The music is decent, and it totally got stuck in my head. The game creator also makes short albums of Game Boy chiptunes, and the songs from There's Nothing To Do In This Town are the last three tracks of this one: https://donotrunwithpixels.bandcamp.com/album/the-outside

This one isn’t a horror game, by the way. It’s very silly and very chill.

Lily's Well

Lily’s Well
https://pureiceblue.itch.io/lilys-well

Lily’s Well is a lo-fi horror adventure game that has a charming top-down NES aesthetic. You play as an anime girl named Lily who hears a voice calling for help from the well by her isolated cabin in the woods. Your job is to explore the house and its surroundings while collecting materials to make a rope. Depending on how many materials you assemble, you’ll be able to descend to a different level of the well. Each of the ten levels is its own horrible ending.

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I said at the beginning that Lily’s Well has an NES aesthetic, but it’s really more of an early 1990s MS DOS game. The graphics are primitive, but Lily’s Well uses them extremely well. Another thing I like about this game is that a lot of care was put into the adventure game elements. There’s all sorts of text for anything you care to interact with. Some of this text is super creepy, and some of it is even useful from a gameplay perspective. If you want to figure everything out on your own without using a guide, it might take a while, but it’s possible. And finally, what I especially love about Lily’s Well is its dark humor. I really enjoyed seeing this cute anime girl die in all sorts of fun and creative ways.